Friday, January 13, 2006

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Watching Samuel Alito's confirmation hearings, we were impressed by their relative lack of media histrionics. Alito was probed on precedent, TV experts argued case law, and senators bickered over committee procedure. In sum, it was both more informative and more entertaining than the nominee's actual answers. Bob parses the coverage ...

The cameras were focused squarely on Sam Alito this week. But if he's confirmed as Supreme Court Justice, the hearings will have been TV viewers' last chance to see him in action. Unless, of course, the current rules are changed to allow video cameras in the Supreme Court. C-SPAN founder ...

Picture the scenario: computer users worldwide wake up one Tuesday morning to find their hard drives smoking, victims of a malicious virus designed to wreak the maximum possible havoc. Internet maven Jonathan Zittrain thinks it's not a matter of if, but when. He tells Brooke that unless we act now, ...

Before we get too deep into 2006, we thought we'd take one last look at some of the ways in which the media got it wrong in 2005. Rebecca Goldin, director of research for George Mason University's Statistical Assessment Service, recounts some of the year's most egregious examples for Bob.

$1.13 trillion. That's the net worth of America's 400 richest people, according to the magazine's 2005 tally. But is the Forbes 400 to be trusted? Brooke talks to New York Times business reporter Timothy O'Brien about the list's shaky underpinnings, and about the obsession it constitutes for one of its ...

Several days ago, it was revealed that James Frey's booze-and-drug-fueled memoir A Million Little Pieces was not, strictly speaking, based on truth. Frey took to the airwaves to defend his bestseller, and a frenzied press debated what, exactly, readers should expect from a memoir. Brooke discusses the uproar with Andrew ...

Swapping identities is one of Reality TV's favorite themes. And so it was probably only a matter of time before a show came along that applied the device to Race in America. In March, FX will debut Black.White., which features two families - one black and one white - who ...